This Is
by PalladiumPoison
Summary: A RobStar fluff fic, starts out as angst then goes to humor/romance. Robin takes a hit to his self-confidence and only one Titan can pull him out of his angst-y mood, Starfire.


Robin's back hit the opposite wall with an unforgiving thud but was immediately back on his feet as the drones charged forward again. He jumped forward knocking the feet out from underneath the nearest drone, using it as leverage to do a handstand off the head of yet another drone, landing gracefully on the cement floor only to have another drone sneak up behind him and land a hard hit to his back, sending him to the ground.

He tucked and rolled out of the way of the drone's foot slamming down on the cement where his chest had been and right as Robin shot up, striking the nearest drone with a harsh right hook, the room flashed red, warning him that the battle session had been terminated.

"_Dude, you've been at this for an hour and a half, your pretty beat up. You should give it a rest." _Beast Boy's voice said over the intercom in the combat training room from the control room. Robin turned toward the large screen to his right, showing the time in which he had destroyed the drones in his past five sessions compared to the other Titans.

Robin scowled at the times, unhappy with his own impressive times. The other Titans, being that they had powers, were expected to have significantly shorter times than him. Yet he still found his own times, which were only seven to eight seconds longer than the others, unacceptable.

"…_.Robin? Earth to Robin!" _Beast Boy called, walking into the combat training room to see Robin glaring at the screen holding the times.

"Why did you terminate the session? I still haven't done any better." Robin said, his masked eyes not straying from the screen.

"Well, you missed dinner. Aren't you hungry?" Beast Boy asked as Cyborg came into the room.

"I'm not letting myself eat until I bet my best time." Robin huffed, feeling something warm soak into the upper right corner of his mask. He reached up wiping the substance from his forehead to have his hand come back dripping with blood.

"Come on dude, lose the Brave Heart act and get something to eat, we got Chinese!" Beast Boy said as Cyborg held up the small white box by the thin wire handle of Chinese food. Robin shook his head and walked past them,

"I'm just going to go take a shower and get some sleep." He said as he left, the door closing silently behind him, the two Titans in the room giving each other a worried look, but they knew only one person could bring him out of this angst-y mood, Starfire.

-TT-

As I walked down the hallway, my uniform sticking uncomfortably because of the sweat and blood, I wiped more blood from my forehead as the blood soaking into my mask was causing my vision to go red. I sighed; I normally didn't feel this self-conscious about not having powers. I was usually so confident in my abilities, and proud of how far I'd gotten without the aid of flying, or starbolts, being an empath, having a canon in my arm, or changing into animals. But for the past week I'd just felt…. Incompetent. Like something was wrong with me because I didn't have any superpowers. What had caused this huge hit to my ego? I knew exactly what. The battle last week that had forced me to wake up and see how horridly incompetent I really was.

_Johnny Rancid shot down the street, carelessly tearing through red light after red light, forcing Cyborg in the T-Car and I on my motorcycle to tear the through each red light as he did, civilian cars swerving and honking at us angrily. Rancid suddenly took a sharp turn down an alleyway and I, my R-Cycle being slim enough to squeeze through the alleyway, followed after him, the T-Car squealing to a stop at the mouth of the alley._

"_Awww, has the birdy been cut off from his flock?" Rancid teased and I rolled my eyes behind my mask and said,_

"_You know Robin's in general don't fly in flocks, right?" He was perplexed for a moment before the sound of two more engines revving as two teenagers on vibrant red and black motorcycles pulled up behind Johnny. I looked at them, seeing that Johnny had apparently found himself some apprentices. Two teenagers barely knowing what they were getting themselves into, and would do anything Johnny asked them to. Perfect._

"_Meet my apprentices, bird boy. Devin and Eric." Johnny said and that's when the other four Titans ran down the alleyway._

"_Ohhhh, three against four. Like you're going to win." Beast Boy said sarcastically. _

"_You think so? Well than I might as well show you what my apprentices can do!" Rancid said as they revved forward, one of them throwing a small plastic red ball at my R-Cycle and in an instinctive reaction I jumped off as the ball hit the windshield of the bike, the ball exploding into a huge gooey mass, engulfing my R-Cycle in it and making it totally un-rideable. _

_I pushed myself up off the ground only to have one of Rancid's goons yank my utility belt from my waist sending me flying to the ground from the inertia of his force of the grab. And then a bag was forced over my head, making it impossible to see and hard to breathe. Then I felt myself being hoisted up and the bag being tied around my neck securely as I was forced up a flight of stairs, Johnny apparently keeping my team busy. _

_As I was shoved through an unforgiving door I felt icy wind whip at my face as the tie was torn and the bag was ripped off my head and found that I was standing at the edge of a four story building looking down into the alleyway below to see Rancid battling my team, one of his apprentices making sure to distract them from my absence._

_I felt the other apprentice pinning my hands behind my back and then he let them go, placing his hands on my shoulder blades and saying just loud enough so I could hear it,_

"_Let's see if you can fly…" and he pushed me, sending me flying over the edge. _

After that it all became a bit hazy. I remember my hands instinctively flying to my waist for my grappling hook only to remember that it had been snatched away, along with my utility belt, earlier. And in that moment, in that moment of pure unadulterated horror, that I realized that I was absolutely useless without my utility belt. There was no Robin the hero. There was Robin's utility belt the hero.

Another thing that was absolutely clear in my memory was looking down at the ground rapidly approaching me, my cape flailing behind me and my hands still at my waist from the search for my utility belt. That's when I'd felt two orange tinted arms catch me, holding me bridal style. I'd looked into two vibrantly green eyes and immediately felt that this wasn't how it was supposed to be. I was supposed to catch _her. _But how could I? When I was so useless. That had been my general train of thought.

And it still was. I thought as I flopped down on my bed, my mask sitting on my bedside table, my boots sitting at the end of my bed and I stretched, my back arching, my toes curling and my fingers stretching to the edge of the bed. I sighed, feeling the beginning of a headache, probably from being knocked around in the combat training room. And as I closed my eyes, feeling the weariness overcome me and my eyes becoming half lidded I heard an insistent knocking on my door.

I groaned, tempted to ignore it. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't want them questioning my behavior and moaned,

"Come in."

"Robin?" I heard a sugary sweet voice ask and I reached over slipping on my mask and opening my eyes to see her walking forward and taking a seat on my bed.

"Robin, I… I have heard, and seen, that something is wrong. Please talk to me, friend." Starfire said quietly as she hesitantly placed a hand on my knee, a little electrical zing shooting up my leg. I looked up at her and sat up quickly, immediately going with a defensive,

"I'm fine, Star."

"It is clear you are not. You have been extremely reserved, even more than friend Raven, you haven't been eating enough, and you spend all of the 'free time' either in the room of evidence or the room of training combat." She said, her voice absorbing more emotion as she went on, her eyes now glistening with unshed tears and I immediately felt absolutely horrible for causing those tears.

"Star," I murmured, gently placing my index and middle finger underneath her chin, forcing her to look into my masked eyes, "Star, I… it's very complicated. You don't really need to know."

"I may not need to, but… but I wish to…" She said quietly, my fingers still pressed underneath her chin and her hand still on my knee and the distance between us precariously close.

"I…uh… um…" I babbled feeling my blood abandon my brain, "I… I'll be right back." And with that I disappeared into my bathroom, my breathing labored and I turned the faucet on the coldest it would go and stuck my face underneath it.

"Alright, alright…. Um, think of something unattractive…. unattractive… um… Kitten! There we go…" I said to myself desperately trying to take deep breaths.

"Robin? Are you ill?" I heard Star say from the other side of the door. I laughed at the irony of the situation and said,

"That's one way you could put it."

"…what? What does that mean?" I heard her voice say in a worried/confused tone.

"Never mind…" I said exiting the bathroom and leaning against the door as it closed.

"Alright, if you are not ill, then perhaps you may tell me what has been… um… on your mind?" She asked staring into my masked eyes.

"Tell me, Star, do think any less of me because I have no powers?" I asked, taking a seat on my bed and she settled beside me. She looked at the ceiling and pondered my question and as the seconds passed I felt more and more doubtful of her answer being positive.

"Robin," She started taking my un-gloved hands in hers making me realize how very soft her hands were, "My dearest friend, Robin, when I look at you I don't see that you have no powers. When I look at you, Robin… I see… I see the most powerful Titan. Stronger than all of us."

"Thanks for trying to humor me, Star, but-"

"I am not doing the humoring of you. I really see and think these things when I see you. I lo-" and she stopped making me tilt forward expectantly.

"You what? What, Starfire?" I asked hopefully.

"I… I… have to go." She whispered, standing and turning to leave making my heart feel as if it were cracking into thousands of pieces.

"Starfire, no! Please, please… don't go." I said, standing behind her, so close that I could smell her hair, strawberries and vanilla, only inches from her.

"Robin, y-" and then she turned, not realizing how close I was and running into me, our lips colliding making my heart jump erratically in my chest as I realized what was happening. This was crazy, this was insane, this was…. amazing.

This was proof that she didn't think I was insufficient or incompetent.

This was love.

-x-

This is my attempt at a fluff fic and I hope it isn't completely retched. I am a huge fan of RobStar and have been wanting to do a RobStar fluff fic after reading tones of them. Anyway, reviews are appreciated. :D ~ QueenSkellington


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